This is not true. The one benefit of all the AI hype is that there are many small teams of smart people getting funding. Maybe in 2-5 years they'll all get acquired or go under, but right now is some of the most fun I've had in industry in a long time.

And, despite all the hype, there is a lot of unexplored stuff in this space that can be done on hardware that can be run in a home office.

Yes, it's not literally coding apps any more, but I know quite a few people working on small, funded teams having a lot of fun right now.

Not sure. Read the recent PG essay. But I reckon you are going to be writing the procurement app for a midsized building firm, or a ERP for a road haulage firm, or a shift management system for a hospital, rather than some low hanging tech bro idea fruit. What they call “IT”.